"Leaving my patient I hurried downstairs to see Dr. Therne, and found
him just stepping from his consulting-room into the hall."

"Did he speak to you?"

"Yes. He said 'How do you do?' and then added, before I could tell him
about his wife, 'I am rather in luck to-day; they are calling me in
to take Lady Colford's case.' I said I was glad to hear it, but that I
thought he had better let some one else attend her ladyship. He looked
astonished, and asked why. I said, 'Because, my dear fellow, I am afraid
that your wife has developed puerperal fever, and the nurse tells
me that you were in her room not long ago.' He replied that it was
impossible, as he had looked at her and thought her all right except for
a little headache. I said that I trusted that I might be wrong, but if
nearly forty years' experience went for anything I was not wrong. Then
he flew into a passion, and said that if anything was the matter with
his wife it was my fault, as I must have brought the contagion or
neglected to take the usual antiseptic precautions. I told him that
he should not make such statements without an atom of proof, but,
interrupting me, he declared that, fever or no fever, he would attend
upon Lady Colford, as he could not afford to throw away the best chance
he had ever had. I said, 'My dear fellow, don't be mad. Why, if anything
happened to her under the circumstances, I believe that, after I have
warned you, you would be liable to be criminally prosecuted for culpable
negligence.' 'Thank you,' he answered, 'nothing will happen to her, I
know my own business, and I will take the chance of that'; and then,
before I could speak again, lifting up his bag from the chair on which
he had placed it, he opened the front door and went out."